How Did Jews and Freemasons Take Over the Power in
Turkey?
Subject: It's time to learn the truth about Jewish Mustafa Kemal,
and the current oppressive Kemalian regime in Turkey which took over the
power after the fall of Ottoman rule, and which brainwash the people of
Turkey from then on...
Source: Below article is taken from Kulanu quarterly newsletter,
Summer 1999, Volume 6 Number 2
(Kulanu is an organization which reflects the community of interests of
individuals of varied backgrounds and religious practices dedicated to
finding and assisting lost and dispersed remnants of the Jewish people)
The Turkish - Israeli Connection and Its Jewish Roots
By Joseph Hantman
One of the most significant developments in recent Middle East affairs
is the close relationship which now exists between Turkey and Israel in
military, political, economic and intelligence matters. This change in
the power structure is usually attributable to the old Arab maxim “the
enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Since both Turkey and Israel count
Syria and Iraq as their strongest threats, the close ties between Turkey
and Israel are quite logical.
However, there is good evidence of a less widely known but
absolutely fascinating story behind this relationship. Turkey, which has
a population almost exclusively Muslim, has a government which by law is
committed to being totally secular. This goes back to modern Turkey’s
founding father, Mustafa Kemal (Kemal Ataturk), 1881-1938, leader of
the Young Turk Movement which took over after World War I and the
collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
Ataturk and his followers moved rapidly to end religious domination and
many religious practices in the daily life of the country. They decreed
a change from the Arabic alphabet to the Roman, and they outlawed the
fez and the veil. They opened schools to both boys and girls, and their
main goal was to Westernize Turkey and secularize its practices. The
Turkish army has been the main enforcement agent of this secular policy
in times of rising fundamentalism among some groups.
Some Background Data
In the 18th and early 19th century Salonika (now Thesalonika), under
Turkish rule in Greece, was the unofficial capital of Sephardic Jewry.
Of the three groups in the city, the Jews were larger than the
combined Greek Orthodox and Muslim population.
The Jews dominated the commerce of the city and controlled the docks of
this major seaport. There were great synagogues and academies of
rabbinic study. Moslem shops closed on Friday, Greek Orthodox on Sunday,
and most shops and businesses were closed on Shabbat. Ladino, the
beautiful mix of Spanish and Hebrew, was the lingua franca of the city
and “Shabbat Shalom” was the universal Saturday greeting among all. In
the late 19th and early 20th century the city declined as a result of
conflict between Greek Orthodox and Moslems, and Jewish dominance of the
city decreased.
Fall of the Ottoman Empire
With the fall of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the decision
at the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 to create an independent Greek state,
the decision was made to transfer populations. All Moslems in Greece had
to move to Turkey and all Orthodox Greeks in Turkey had to move to
Greece. In all, about 350,000 Moslems and one million Greeks were
involved in the move. Jews were permitted to remain wherever they lived.
At this time a group of Moslems went to the authorities supervising the
population shift and explained that they were not really Moslems but
were in fact really Jews posing as Moslems. The authorities would
not entertain such a claim so the group then went to the Chief Rabbi,
Saul Amarillo, to verify their Jewish status. Rabbi Amarillo states,
“Yes, I know who you are. You are momzarim (very loosely translated as
bastards) and as such not acceptable in the Jewish community.” These
people were the Donmeh, the Turkish word for converts, and their
existence had been known for over 200 years. They were called momzarim
because of the bizarre sexual practices that were part of their
religious rituals, which made it impossible to trace parentage and
lineage. The Donmeh were forced to leave Salonika for Turkey, which,
considering the tragic fate of Salonika’s Jews during the Holocaust 20
years later, undoubtedly saved their lives.
Who Were the Donmeh? (Doenmeh, Donme)
One of the best known names but least known historical figures in Jewish
history is Shabbtai Zvi, the “false messiah” (1626-1687). Born in
Smyrna, Turkey, of a Sephardic father and an Ashkenazi mother, he was a
brilliant child and Talmudic student, and an ordained rabbi in his mid
teens. He went on to study and became a master in Kabbalah and other
Jewish mysticism. His oratory was captivating and he soon acquired a
following. However, he exhibited odd characteristics, including periods
of illumination where he was believed to be communicating with God and
periods of darkness when he was wrestling with evil. Soon he began to
hint that he was the Messiah. This blasphemy caused him to be expelled
from a number of congregations. He took up a pilgrim’s staff and with
some followers roamed the Middle East, gathering many to his messianic
preaching, especially during his periods of light. In Gaza he was
welcomed by Rabbi Nathan, who had for years been preaching that the
arrival of the Messiah was imminent. This combination led to a great
outpouring of belief in Shabbtai Zvi as the Messiah. Word spread
throughout the Jewish world, from Poland, Amsterdam, Germany, London,
Persia, and Turkey to Yemen. Multitudes joined his ranks – educated
rabbis, illiterates, rich and poor alike were swept up in the mass
hysteria.
Among his inner core, they accepted his theory that all religious
restrictions were reversed. The forbidden was encouraged and the
commandments of the Torah were replaced by Shabbtai’s 18 (chai)
commandments. This led to feasting on fast days, sexual relations with
others than one’s spouse, and many more. The high point was in 1665-66,
when Shabbtai, with his followers, marched on the Sultan’s palace
expecting to be greeted as the Messiah. This of course did not happen.
To shorten this story, Shabbtai was given the choice “convert to Islam
or die.” To the consternation of his followers, he chose conversion.
Most of his followers return to their homelands where, after penitence
and sometimes flagellation, they were received into the congregations.
However, some hundreds of families of his inner circle considered his
apostasy as part of his overall plan of reaching the depth before
attaining redemption. They too converted to Islam, although for about
200 years they lived as Moslems but secretly passed on their secret
quasi-Jewish Shabbatean beliefs and practices to their children.
They continued learning and praying in Hebrew and Ladino. As the
generations passed, the knowledge of Hebrew was reduced to reciting
certain prayers and expressions by memory in a barely understood Hebrew.
They were known in Turkish as Donmeh, meaning “converts”; to the Jews
they were Minim, meaning “heretics.” They referred to themselves as
Ma’aminim, the “believers.” They were never really accepted by the Turks
nor by the Jews.
As we get into the middle and late 1800's and education and enlightened
thinking spread through parts of the region, young Donmeh men who were
dissatisfied with their status as “neither-nor” turned to secular
nationalism to establish their identity. They neglected all forms of
religious belonging and saw in the "Young Turk movement" their
emancipation.
The Jewish Roots * * *
In 1911 in the Hotel Kamenetz in Jerusalem, Itamar Ben Avi, a
newspaperman and writer who was the son of Eleazer Ben Yehudah (credited
as the main proponent of the establishment of Modern Hebrew) met with a
young Turkish Army officer. After enjoying a good quantity of Arak, the
officer, Col. Mustafa Kemal, turned to his drinking partner and
recited the “Shema” in fluent Hebrew and indicated that he came from a
Donmeh family. They met again on a few occasions and Kemal filled in
more of his background. This man was of course to become General Kemal
Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey.
Remnants of Donmeh still exist. There is an unidentifiable building
known as the Jewish Mosque where Donmeh still meet. During World War II,
when Turkey was close to Germany, there were separate tax lists for
different religious categories, and the “D” list was for Donmeh. During
his lifetime and continuing today, there have been whispered rumors
among Islamic activists that Kemal Ataturk and other Young Turks were
of Jewish origin. Publicly, he denied this and his biographers
avoided the issue.
However, there is little doubt that 300 years after the death of
Shabbtai Zvi, his influence and twists and turns of his Donmeh followers
provided the activist secular basis which is one of the underlying
principles of modern Turkey – without which the Turkish-Israeli
connection would have been most unlikely.
To bring this story up to date and possibly complete the circle, we now
learn that some Donmeh living in Turkey have made inquiry of American
Jewish religious organizations about the possible re-entry of Donmeh
into today’s Jewish world. |
